Next-Gen Home Consoles Ditching Backwards Compatibility, Says EA Man

Speaking about the game giant's general plans for selling us shooty/sporty games in the distant future, an Electronic Arts man said the next generation of home consoles "will most likely not be backwards compatible."

In a Q&A session with investors, EA's chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen said: "An important thing to remember is that next-gen consoles will most likely not be backwards compatible… And if you [play] multiplayer on a game, you'll most likely not be able to play with someone on a different generation."

Given the big changes in internal hardware providers and configuration we're seeing pop up in leaks regarding Sony and Microsoft's plans for its next machines, that's not entirely surprising. And as we excitedly guessed when Sony bought streaming service Gaiki, we wouldn't be shocked if back-compat features were done via some sort of streaming solution instead of running your old discs on the new machines. And if this shaves £50 off the RRP of PS4 and Xbox 720, it has to be a good decision.

Jorgensen also dropped some big hints about console and tablet integration, that seem to confirm one of the big players may offer a tablet version of its next home machine, saying: "You're going to see people playing on glass at the same time they're playing on the console. And there's going to be some exciting innovations around that." [Gamasutra via Kotaku]